Architect Made Turn From Banking Into Urban Design

0

It wasn’t long after he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in finance that Rhett Beavers realized he had chosen the wrong profession. He had already begun work at a local bank.

“Both the bank and I agreed that I was perhaps pursuing the wrong career,” Beavers said. “I began to search for a job that’s portable and creative.”

He immediately made a sharp turn, returning to school to study architecture. The second time, Beavers made the right call: It’s been 25 years since he graduated from Texas A & M; University with a master’s degree in landscape architecture.

Recently, Beavers was named urban designer in the Santa Monica office of Gensler, an international architectural firm.

“My role is to create a place where people can gather,” he said. “I’ve been creating new communities, and what I enjoy the most is the story that’s created. Each part of the project has a reason and story: There’s history, context and the big, noble idea. Part of my job is to figure out what the big, noble idea is.”

One of the largest projects Beavers is working on at Gensler is in Chungju, a textile and farming town in South Korea. He is laying out a new community in an attempt to create a sense of wellness, activity, story and connectivity.

As a designer handling projects that have a global reach, he stays on top of the various urban design approaches that are employed locally, nationally and around the world.

“My biggest challenge is being current, understanding the great changes of the ways people live and communicate with each other,” Beavers said. “It’s an ongoing task. I try to figure out and visualize new ways of living. It’s an amazing thing to watch the world changing so fast.”

Beavers is single and he lives in Hollywood. In his free time, he loves to travel to exotic locations.


Yoo Mi Chin

No posts to display